Patricia Cheng

Patricia Cheng, now in her late 40s, had been enjoying a relatively quiet life as a book-keeper in a Chinese bank, and as the wife of Winston Lee, who ran the Cheng Detective Agency. It was at the bank that she noticed Winston Lee when he came in to open an account with his first big fee from his first big case. Winston specialised in what he called 'errant spouses' (read: adultery and divorce) and 'errant money' (read: commercial fraud). He was discreet, thorough and honest. And he would never take on a case for someone who didn't uphold the same values.
But in the brave new world of mid 1960s' Singapore, matters became complicated with the 'End of Empire' (British); the 'fight against Communism' (American); the on-off relationship with Malaysia; and 'big money' - both legal and illegal. These whirlpools affected even the domestic-level cases that were Winston's province.
Then Winston died on the way to meet a client.
It's a time of high racial and political tension and union strikes, and in the resulting confusion and disorder, the police never found his killer, and so assumed that his death was a robbery gone wrong.
Patricia misses her beloved husband, but although she is only too well aware of the financial risks in her 'new life', is beginning to enjoy her new independence and the challenges that detective agency brings. But her world is turned upside down a second time when she discovers that Winston had a secret life. She and new recruit Sam Callaghan become convinced that Winston was murdered. Their search for the truth takes them into a murky world of Chinese secret societies and 'Big Power' secret services.